Are You Sherlocked? Preparing for the Resurrection

By
Darwyn Carson
|
Leonard MaltinJanuary 14, 2014 at 12:00AM

Because I spend so much time watching and writing about movies, I don’t get to follow as many TV series as I’d like. That’s why I’m happy to turn over the site today to my colleague Darwyn Carson, who (like many of you, I suspect) can’t wait for Sherlock to return to television this coming weekend.

Because
I spend so much time watching and writing about movies, I don’t get to follow
as many TV series as I’d like. That’s why I’m happy to turn over the site today
to my colleague Darwyn Carson, who (like many of you, I suspect) can’t wait forSherlock to
return to television this coming weekend.

Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss, writers and creators of BBC’s "Sherlock" discuss the re-imagining of Doyle’s famous detective.

Are you Sherlocked...? Preparing for the Resurrection by Darwyn
Carson

It’s
been nearly two years since The
Reichenbach Fall and the deadly confrontation between Sherlock and his psycho-nemesis
Moriarty, wherein our hero flung himself off the rooftop of St. Bartholomew's Hospital.
He lay dead in the streets. We all saw him. His only friend, John Watson saw
him too and though we, the audience, were immediately reassured that the great
man still lived John wasn’t afforded the same comfort. Sherlock had to remain,
for the safety of those closest to him, hidden in the shadows.

Surely
Doctor Watson’s grief has known no bounds, not to mention the landlady, Mrs.
Hudson. Or have they both…as life and
people often do…moved on? If so, there remain questions which beg to be
answered. How was this slight of hand accomplished and how will Holmes be able
to walk in the light again without putting his compatriots in danger? How will
John react once he learns the truth? I shudder to think.

But…I
needn’t worry. All will be put right when these questions are answered this
Sunday (January 19/PBS) when Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman return to Masterpiece Mystery! in season three of Sherlock.

To get
ready for this event (and it is an
event) think about picking up The
Sherlock Files by Guy Adams, the official companion guide to the show. It’s
clever in its presentation, informative and entertaining.

!t Books (A Harper Collins Imprint)

My
favorite sections are the conversations with co-creators Steven Moffatt and
Mark Gatiss who, while working on Dr. Who
and other TV projects, sometimes road the same commuter train into the city
and would often share aloud their wish list projects:

“We
kept talking about things we’d like to do,” said Gatiss. “And Sherlock Holmes
came up again and again.

“It
came down to the fact that we secretly liked the Rathbone’s best. (Basil that
is—1939 to ‘46) Particularly the ones where they brought them up to date,” he
continued. “These cheeky B-movies seemed to us to be closer to Doyle than
almost any other version. Perhaps because his own attitude towards his creation
was so casual that somehow these potboilers really got it.”

Now everyone
knows Sherlock; his unique—bordering on sociopathic—personality traits and maddening
peccadilloes. He is, after all, one of the most oft-portrayed literary
characters in film and television. And according to Moffatt and Gatiss, one of
the great things about Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s singular creation is, he never
leaves you guessing.

“He
has one whopping advantage over magicians,” Moffatt said, “This is where Doyle
is right and the magicians wrong: always tell them how the trick is done! I saw a magic act in Edinburgh where you went
to see the magic act, a very good magic act, and then you went back an hour
later and he showed you how every single trick was done. And I have to say that
knowing did not spoil it. Sherlock Holmes tells you how the trick is done. No
matter how much you hate him, you want to listen to the next thing he says. You’d
really hate him if he said, ‘I’m going
to do all this and then not tell you how!’”

!t Books (A Harper Collins Imprint)

BTW: The Sherlock Files is the perfect volume
to peruse to either acquaint or reacquaint yourself with the previous six
shows, while gearing up for the new season.

Besides
interviews and commentary from the serie’s creators and stars, Cumberbatch,
Freeman and Rupert Graves, Adams inserts a modern day ploy to include private
conversations between Holmes and Watson. Conversations laid out in the form of
post it notes written betwixt the two (their main form of communication
perhaps?) and left laying around the flat, with occasional notes from Mycroft
Holmes, ‘The Woman’ who nearly bested the brilliant detective and even a note
or two from Mrs. Hudson:

Watson:
“Certainly. How about: ‘Most people think I’m mad to put up with you.’”

Holmes:
“Me included.”

The
six episodes from the previous two seasons are broken down into separate
chapters, with Dr. Watson’s handwritten notes, portions of the online blog recounting
the consulting detective’s exploits and Detective Lestrade’s police reports. There’s so much more in these pages: newspaper
articles, a closer look at the evidence, and coroner’s reports; all of which
allows us to feel like true insiders into a very private world.

Sunday
can’t get here fast enough. Am I Sherlocked? You betcha!

'Til then for your viewing pleasure the Season 3 Prequel:

The Sherlock Files (!t Books/Harper Collins Imprint) is available on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and at your local bookseller.

OnPBS Masterpiece Mystery! watch Sherlock: The Empty Hearse, onSunday, January 19 followed by Sherlock: The Sign of Three, January 26 and Sherlock: The Last Vow, February 2. Check your local listings for times.